This invention relates generally to bicycle accessories and more specifically to bicycle carriers mountable to the rear of a vehicle for receiving and carrying one or more bicycles.
Bicycling has become a popular sport in recent years and the number of cyclists engaged in casual, sports, and extreme bicycling have increased dramatically. Many popular bicycling activities, such as mountain biking for example, generally are enjoyed at remote locations distant from a cyclist""s home. As a result, there has arisen a need with the increasing popularity of bicycling for convenient and reliable methods of transporting bicycles to and from bicycling locations. To fill this need, a variety of automotive bicycle carriers have been developed. Some of these carriers, referred to as roof-mount carriers, are mounted to the roof of an automobile for securing one or more bicycles to the roof for transport. Others, known as trunk, rear, or hitch mount carriers, are designed to be mounted to the rear end or trunk portion of an automobile for carrying one or more bicycles immediately behind the automobile. In general, trunk mount carriers include tubular frames that are strapped to the rear end portion of an automobile or fixed in a trailer hitch adapter and that are formed with a pair of rearwardly projecting support arms upon which one or more bicycles are suspended and secured for transport.
Rear mount bicycle carriers are available in a number of configurations. U. S. Pat. No. 5,056,700, for example, discloses an automobile mountable bicycle carrier having a frame that is mounted to the trunk portion of an automobile. The carrier is mounted to an automobile by lashing it with straps to the rear end portion of the automobile with trunk and bumper engaging bars resting on top of the trunk and bumper respectively. A U-shaped support member defining a pair of spaced support arms extends rearwardly (with respect to the automobile) from the frame. A pair of mounting brackets or control blocks are attached to each of the spaced support arms for receiving bicycle frames to suspend the frames from the support arms for transport. U.S. Pat. No. 4,452,385 discloses a similar carrier with spaced rearwardly extending bicycle support arms as does U. S. Pat. No. 5,826,767. Rear mount bicycle carriers that are releasably secured within the hitch adapter of an automobile or truck also are available and, like other carriers, may have a pair of rearwardly projecting support arms and cradles from which one or more bicycles are suspended during transport.
Most bicycle carriers with spaced support arms are provided with pairs of cradles that are mounted to the support arms. In most cases, two or more pairs of cradles can be mounted to the support arms of the carrier to accommodate the transport of two or more bicycles on the same carrier. The cradles usually are configured with V or U shaped saddles shaped to receive and hold the top tube of a bicycle frame. Elastic straps may be are provided for strapping the bicycle frame to the cradles so that the bicycle is securely but releasably attached to the carrier during transport. Many carriers also include anti-sway devices, which may or may not be incorporated into the cradles themselves. Generally, these anti-sway devices are configured to receive and hold one of the vertically extending tubes of the bicycle frame, usually the down tube, to inhibit and prevent to-and-fro swaying motion of the bicycle as it is transported.
It is desirable in many cases that the cradles and anti-sway devices of a bicycle carrier be adjustable along the length of their support arms to accommodate various bicycle sizes and carrying configurations. However, in the past some bicycle carriers have been provided with cradles that either are not adjustable at all, are adjustable to only limited positions, or that require tools and inordinate time and effort to effect a position adjustment. As a result, cyclists have been relegated simply to making do or improvising when a pair of cradles on their bicycle carrier are not mounted in the most desirable positions along the support arms. In any event, the need for convenient user adjustment of the positions of the cradles and anti-sway devices has not been addressed successfully by bicycle carrier manufacturers.
Thus, a need exists for a bicycle carrier having spaced support arms carrying pairs of cradles that can be easily, quickly, accurately, and reliably be adjusted by a cyclist to virtually any desired position along their support arms. A further need exists for the cradles of such a carrier to be simple, interchangeable, and reversible if needed with each cradle being capable of serving an anti-sway function if required as well as a bicycle frame holding function. It is to the provision of such a bicycle carrier that the present invention is primarily directed.
Briefly described, the present invention, in a preferred embodiment thereof, comprises a bicycle carrier for supporting one or more bicycles on a vehicle for transport. In the preferred embodiment discussed herein, the bicycle carrier is a trunk mount carrier. However, the invention is also applicable to carriers other than trunk mount carriers such as, for example, hitch mount carriers, and should not be considered to be limited only to trunk mount carriers of the preferred embodiment.
The bicycle carrier of this invention comprise a frame mountable to the rear of a vehicle such as an automobile. Conventionally, the frame defines a pair of spaced apart rearwardly extending support arms for receiving and supporting one or more bicycle frames for transport. Each support arm is provided with a plurality of spaced apart positioning guides extending along the length of the support arm. In the preferred embodiment, the positioning guides take the form of an array of spaced annular troughs extending along the support arm. In the preferred embodiment, the troughs are defined by a ribbed tubular sleeve mounted over and covering the support arm, the sleeve preferably being made of plastic and having a corrugated outer surface defining annular ridges and troughs extending along the sleeve.
At least one cradle is mounted on each of the support arms and the cradles have openings through which the support arms and ribbed sleeve extend. Each of the cradles preferably, but not necessarily, is an anti-sway cradle. That is, each cradle is formed with a first saddle that can be positioned to receive and hold a top tube of a bicycle frame mounted on the carrier and a second saddle that can be positioned, if needed, to receive and hold a down tube of the bicycle frame. In this way, undesirable-swaying motion of the bicycle during transport is inhibited.
Each of the cradles is formed with a positioning member in the form of a tab that extends partially into the opening of the cradle. The tab is sized and shaped to be received and to ride within any of the annular troughs defined by the ribbed sleeve on which the cradle is mounted. It will thus be seen that the particular trough in which the tab is located determines the position of the cradle along the length of its support arm. Further, since the tab of the cradle rides within its selected trough, the cradle is freely rotatable about its support arm to any desired orientation.
A channel is formed along the ribbed sleeve, preferably along the bottom of the support arm, and interrupts the annular ribs of the sleeve. The channel is sized such that when the tab of a cradle mounted on the support arm is rotated to align its tab with the channel, the cradle may be slid along the support arm with its tab moving along the channel. In this way, cradles may be slid easily to any desired location along their support arms. Once a cradle is slid to a desired location, it may simply be rotated back around to an operational orientation, whereupon its tab moves into a trough of the ribbed sleeve at the new location to fix the position of the cradle along its support arm. It will thus be seen that the cradles of the carrier are quickly and easily adjustable to any desired positions along their support arms to accommodate bicycles of different sizes and configurations.
Each of the cradles of the invention preferably is an anti-way cradle and, for this purpose, is formed with two saddles sized to receive and hold selected tubes of a bicycle frame. Each saddle is identical, and thus reversible and interchangeable as needed and each has two operational orientations. In one orientation, appropriate when the cradle is located adjacent the junction of the top tube and the down tube of a bicycle frame, the first saddle of the cradle receives and holds the top tube of the frame and the second saddle receives and holds the down tube of the frame. Elastic straps releasably secure the tubes of the bicycle frame to the cradle. Thus, the first saddle holds the top tube at a selected position along the support arm and the second saddle prevents the frame of the bicycle from swaying back and forth during transport.
In the second operational orientation of the cradle, appropriate when the cradle is to hold only the top tube of the bicycle frame, the cradle is rotated about its support arm to engage its second saddle with the top tube of the frame and an elastic strap secures the tube to the cradle. Generally, a bicycle frame is mounted on the carrier with the cradle on one support arm being oriented to hold the top and down tubes as described and with an opposed cradle on the other support arm being oriented to hold the top tube at a location spaced from the down tube. In this way, the bicycle frame is held securely on the carrier and is prevented from swaying during transport.
Thus, a bicycle carrier is now provided that includes cradles on its support arms that are selectively positionable at any desired position along the length of their respective support arms. Further, the adjustment is quickly and easily accomplished by a user without the need for any tools or special skills. Once a cradle is positioned, it is freely rotatable about the support arm to adapt the cradle for holding the top tube of a bicycle frame or for holding the top tube and providing the anti-sway function by holding the down tube simultaneously. These and other features, objects, and advantages of the bicycle carrier of this invention will become more apparent upon review of the detailed description set forth below when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing figures, which are briefly described as follows.